Card 6 - USSR: MidEast Scoring. I never had enough to salvage the situation. USSR has presence, USA has domination. USSR has 0 Battleground countries, USA has 1 (Iran). Net 3 point shift for USA. USA: Socialist Governments for Influence. I place 3 influence and he removes 3, so thec ard is a complete wash.

Card 3 - USSR: Formosan Resolution on the Space Race, and the USSR puts Sputnik into orbit. USA: Korean War for Coup in Thailand, which is not successful. North Korea wins the War, 1 USSR Influence in S. Korea.

Card 5 - USSR: East European Unrest for Influence, as a wash-out. The USSR simply replaces the Influence the USA removes. USA: Fidel on the Space Race to put a monkey into space.

Card 6 - USSR: Blockade as Event. I figure better to play this late and hope his last card isn't a 3Ops event. It isn't and all USA Influence is removed from W Germany. USA: Romanian Abdication for Influence: W. Germany (1).

Card 6 - USSR: The USSR has no 2Ops cards to discard for Bear Trap, so it plays Africa Scoring. USSR has domination, USA has no presence. USSR has 1 Battleground country (Angola), USA has 0. Net 5 point shift for USSR. USA: Kitchen Debates for Influence. The USA gets no Ops because of Red Scare, but the card will be re-cycled.

Card 7 - USSR: The USSR has no 2Ops cards to discard for Bear Trap, so it plays South America Scoring. USSR has presence, USA has no presence. USSR has 1 Battleground country (Chile), USA has 0. Net 3 point shift for USSR. USA: Lone Gunman for Influence. The USA gets no Ops because of Red Scare and the USSR sees the USA Held Card (Willy Brandt).

Card 1 - USSR: Alliance for Progress is discarded and the USSR rolls to escape the Bear Trap. USA: Missile Envy as Event to steal We Will Bury You from the USSR. We Will Bury You is used for Influence: Burma (2), Pakistan (2), S.Korea (2).

Card 3 - USSR: Cuban Missile Crisis for a Coup in Iran. USA Influence is removed and a slightly pro-USSR (1) government comes to power. USA: Shuttle Diplomacy for Influence: Laos (1), Vietnam (1). Serious mistake on the USSR part not to renew our Influence in these countries right away; Asia is now solidly blue!

Card 6 - USSR: Camp David Accords on the Space Race and Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person in space. USA: Willy Brandt on the Space Race. The USA follows with a Lunar Probe success.

Card 7 - USSR: Sadat Expels the Soviets for Influence: Iran (2). The USA Event removes all USSR Influence from Egypt and adds 1 USA Influence (1). USA: The USA is out of cards. Neither of us is clear why, but a mistake was made somewhere. We press on...

Card 1 - USSR: Arab-Israeli War as Event and the Arabs win the war. All USA Influence removed from Israel, USSR now has 1 Influence. USA: One Small Step to leapfrog the USSR to put a man in Earth Orbit.

Card 3 - USSR: East European Unrest for Space Race and the USSR puts the second person into orbit. (Had I been paying attention, I would have gone for these VPs with my first card, since I am so close to auto-victory...this was a bad mistake on my part and I almost paid for it dearly since from this point my VPs dropped steadliy!). USA: Colonia Rearguards as Event: S.Africa (2), Zaire (1), Zimbabwe (1), Thailand (4). My status in Africa and Asia is dreadful with few spots available to start changing it!

The situation is dreadful in most areas and my long-term prospects are fairly dim. But I get dealt Wargames and DEFCON is at 3. I need to gain 2VPs before I play it to win the game. This is a dicey proposition however. If I never get to play it I have Asia Scoring which will turn the VP on its head if I spend no time rectifying the Influence problem in Asia.

Here goes nothing...

Headline -

USSR: Missile Envy. I will pull a good card from his hand (hopefully) use it's OPs to run a coup in a BG country, plus know what card he is playing on Action Round 1 (Missile Envy). On Action Round 1 I can play OPEC to gain 2VP (to get to -7) assuming nothing changes in the Headline phase. Since he has to play Missile Envy on Action Round 1, he can't affect the VPs (no VPs in the next box on the Space Race and it is a 3OPs box) so I can play Wargames on Action Round 2 to win. Everything depends on his Headline card...

USA: Latin America Debt Crisis. A USSR Event that forces the USA to discard a card to avoid placing USSR influence in South America. Either he has a hand full of USSR Events or he thought it would be useful to play the card and discard Glasnost, which is what he does.

He gives me Shuttle Diplomacy for my card and I use it as a Coup in Brazil (USA:0 USSR:4) and DEFCON to 2.

Card 2 - USSR: Wargames as Event. VPs to -1 and the game ends with a USSR victory...barely.

Conclusions

An interesting game. Lots of people hate the Wargames card ending. It certainly took a near-certain loss for me and gave me a win, which I suppose is the point of the card...you can never be sure.

I got close to an auto-victory and got so focused on it that I let the board position slip away and dennis would almost certainly have won a long game. Plus I got very lucky that none of the scoring cards recycled quickly!